


The Agency

by aintweproudriff



Series: Superhero AU [8]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M, The Grand Finale, Violence, evil clones, gasp guess who's the bad guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-05 21:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15872271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: After the superhero agency is infiltrated, the heroes - and other people - have to work to keep the villain "The Official" from destroying the city, and all of them.Updates on Sundays





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The editing on this is poor because I'm in a rush. Whoops!

The whole thing started out innocent enough. Sarah Jacobs sat at her desk, aware that although their team was in dire straits, this mission should be relatively simple. She wanted to send Doctor Chem, Rogue, Minerva, and Captain Cannon out on this one in particular, since it seemed up their alley. It needed quick thinking and quick reactions. No one had that quite like her girlfriend and brother and his boyfriends. The mission was intense: holdup and hostage situation at the United Nations headquarters. Police were largely prevented from getting to the building by a flood that was bizarrely surrounding the building.   
She'd dispatch Sunspot, Nova, and Hecate to handle the flooding; Spot had done floods before and his powers worked well with fire - so would Joey’s. Rafaela would be mostly there for protection in case something went wrong and the two of them were attacked.   
That kept Sprint and Helionin the agency, along with Sarah and Medda. 

At least, the four of them would be able to stay in their makeshift agency. In ‘the heist,’ as they’d begun to call it, when Davey, Crutchie, and Jack had found criminals stealing Davey’s scientific breakthroughs, the old base was destroyed beyond use. In the meantime, the group of superheroes had been using Jack, Crutchie, and Davey’s apartment as a base.   
It was far from perfect, of course, but it did the trick. Sarah only hoped the neighbors didn’t become an issue. Medda promised that they would figure out a more secluded base soon, and this would only be for a few weeks. All of them needed that to be true. 

"Okay, Rogue, you're going to have to get in there and hold up the people with the guns, okay? It'll be a standoff."

"Standoff, yep," Jack replied, and Sarah recognized his labored breathing. 

"If you can, avoid shooting. You're not there to hurt or kill, you're there to keep the criminals busy so Doctor Chem, Minerva, and the Cannon can get people to safety," she explained, even though the four of them had been briefed before they left. She knew how sometimes heroes, could get, caught up in the moment and trigger-happy. Jack normally didn't, since he'd been doing this for so long, but it never hurt to be careful. 

"Got it, Sarah."

"Good. Doc, Cap, your job again is to get people to safety. Captain, that's going to fall mostly on you. You're fast, strong, all that, so get in and out as much as possible." She nodded as she went, making sure she recapped everything in detail. "Doctor Chem, do your best to keep the scene clear, and save anything being stolen, but be discreet."

"Understood," came Davey's voice, nearly as panicked as when he'd done his first mission. It never got easier for him: he always had to rest for hours after a mission, because they stressed him out so much. But he still did every mission faithfully, because he needed to be able to help the city. Sarah admired her brother more than any other hero she'd worked with. 

“Minerva, again, keep them safe. I trust your judgement on this one, so you can do what you see fit, as long as there’s no body count at the end of it. Or at least minimal.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good. I’ll check back in soon,” she said, and clicked her headset to switch conversations. “Sunspot, Nova, Hecate?”

“Hi Sarah!” Rafaela jumped at the opportunity to answer, still excited to be able to talk to Sarah while she was on a mission. Sarah smiled at how cute she was. 

“Hi, Hecate. You know what you’re supposed to do?”

Spot interrupted. “Yeah, thanks, Sarah. Evaporate the flood, figure out if someone’s behind it. Easy as pie.”

“Alright, thanks, Sunspot,” Sarah smiled at him. He’d grown cold, ironically, in his years at the agency. He wasn’t that old - he was younger than Jack by a few weeks - but after everything he’d gone through in his teenage years and now, with fighting crime, she wondered if he would retire to lead a normal life sooner rather than later. She wouldn’t blame him if he did. Not only did he deserve it, but the agency had a great retirement plan. Namely: “not being paid to fight people anymore.” 

She turned around to look at the people still there. Medda grinned at her like a proud mother hen. Sarah had always thought Medda was perfect for her position as the head of the agency. She was trained in superhero tactics, but had retired to guide other people, to train them to help people. Medda took fierce pride in her agency, and Sarah knew she would do anything for each of them.   
Medda touched Sarah’s shoulder, letting her revel in the warmth she could get, even here, in a workspace that wasn’t really a workspace. Although Sarah did admit that Jack, Davey, and Crutchie’s apartment was homier than the original base, she missed the home that they’d created down there. In her heart, however, it was obvious. The home was wherever her coworkers, friends, brother, and girlfriend were.   
Albert and Elmer seemed to reach for each other, too. Both of them fidgeted nervously when they weren’t on a mission and other people were. They constantly wanted to help - it was what made them such perfect heroes. But it bugged the shit out of Sarah and Katherine. 

Lucky for them, a red dot flashed on Sarah’s screen. 

“Okay, Al, El,” she looked at them. “I think you’re up. Something’s going on over in Harlem. Think Marcus Garvey area.” Sarah zoomed in on her computer screen. “I’ll help you guys through it once I get a better read on what’s going on. Get suited up and get out of here.”

Albert nodded at her, and Elmer didn’t even give any recognition that he’d heard other than doing as she said. They understood the necessity for speed. 

Medda smiled at her again as the boys lifted off, and Sarah touched her headset to talk to Katherine. 

“Minerva, how are you doing over there?”

“Doing okay, Sarah, thanks!” Katherine yelled, and Sarah thought she heard a gunshot. “They’re putting up a fight, but I think we can-”

Sarah heard a buzzing in her ear that could only mean Spot’s team was calling her. “Hold on, Minerva,” she said, and tapped her microphone again. 

“What’s going on?”

“Sarah, we’ve got a major problem.” Sunspot sounded actually panicked. Sarah, knowing how rarely he actually lost his cool, felt her heart skip a beat. 

“What is it?” She felt a buzz on her headset, meaning someone else needed to talk to her, but she’d stay here with Spot as long as she needed to. Her other heroes were more than capable. 

“The villains down here that caused this. Sarah, they’re us.”

“What do you mean they’re you?”

Hecate butted in. “They’re like evil versions of the three of us. Villainous clones.”

Sarah heard a crash, and felt another buzz. “Keep fighting until I can get back to you. I need to see what the other guys need.”

She switched her conversation, and Jack’s voice yelled in her ear. 

“The people holding them hostage are us!” he screamed. “There’s Rogue, and Minerva, Cap, and Chem, but they’re all trying to hurt the hostages.”

“Rogue,” she said, trying to stay calm, “keep fighting for a while. Hold them off until I can get back to you, alright?”

He didn’t answer, but Sarah heard gunshots from his end. Jack could shoot a target at five hundred yards, and hit it perfectly - an evil version of him wouldn’t hesitate to do so on a human target. An evil version of Captain Cannon could cause serious damage using super strength and flight. Sarah didn’t even want to consider what a villainous version of her brother could do. She couldn’t imagine any of them being evil, but apparently, she didn’t need to. 

“Sprint,” she called, switching the conversation yet again. “Are you and Helion having trouble with clones of yourselves?”

“How’d you guess?” Helion grunted the words out. 

“Just keep fighting, alright? I’ll figure out a way to get help.”

Sarah turned around and looked at Medda. “How do we deal with this?”

“I can only assume they’re evenly matched with their clones,” Medda answered, shaking her head and closing her eyes. “So there’s no way they can beat themselves. If they just keep fighting, both the good and evil ones will eventually exhaust themselves. And if neither of them give up, they might kill each other.”

“So what do we do?”

Medda blinked in sudden realization. “I have to suit up. Go help someone overcome their evil self.”

Sarah nodded. “Which group should I help through their fights?”

“Me,” Medda turned around and headed towards the closet where they had put the supersuits of retired superheroes. “I’m going to help Rogue.”

“Alright,” she clicked the headset over to talk to her girlfriend. “Minerva,” she assured, “help is on its way.”

A harsh noise from behind her forced her to look at the front door of the apartment. Medda, now Reyna, stepped out from the closet, wearing a retro pink-bodiced supersuit, complete with the emblazoned “R” on the front. She swung her head to the door, where smoke was clearing. As it did, it became clearer and clearer who had broken down the door.   
Now, two Reynas stared at Sarah. One who had been there for as long as Sarah had, and one new one, who was dressed in an identical - but red - supersuit. Behind the new Reyna, who must have been evil-Reyna, Sarah saw another familiar face, complete with familiar brown tresses and eyes. It took her a moment to recognize that this was her, but dressed in all white, and holding a headset in her hands. This Sarah smirked and sat down next to her. 

“Alright, Jack,” she said, and Sarah realized that her clone’s job was the same as hers. “Let’s kick the heroes asses.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> akldsfjdl You guys have been so nice about this fic, it means so so so much. I don't want it to end either.

She felt a shock at the fact that whoever had created evil clones of the agency had thought her important enough to clone. Not that that mattered much: what mattered was that now, Medda was preoccupied with her alter-ego, and couldn’t go help Jack. 

“Katherine,” Evil-Sarah said, and Sarah switched her microphone to be able to talk to her girlfriend. “Try to make her think. Catch her off guard. Include as many languages as possible.”

Sarah didn’t even think before speaking. “Minerva, don’t overthink this. Keep it simple and clean, alright? You can take her down, just don’t wear yourself out. Be strategic here.”

Evil-Sarah switched to another conversation. “Albert, are they there yet?” She paused, waiting. “Okay. Do everything you can to overpower them.”

Sarah tried to shake it off; she knew this was an intimidation tactic. Brag, make it look like you have the upper hand, get the opponent flustered. She figured that was why Evil-Sarah kept saying the names of the heroes instead of their hero names. The agency had decided long ago that they would only use hero names, in order to keep anonymity. But clones didn’t care if the whole world knew that Rogue was secretly Jack Kelly. In fact, they probably wanted it, if only for the purpose of more chaos. It wasn’t like the consequences would be on them.   
She watched as dots on the screen moved around: each one represented someone who was fighting. If one of the heroes went down, or if one of the villains went down, their dot would disappear and she’d lose track of them. Each of her heroes had their own color, and she was so used to watching each of them fight that she no longer needed to reference the cheat-sheet she’d made. Rogue, Minerva, Captain Cannon, and Doctor Chem fought together in a clump: barn red, neon pink, yellow, and dark green respectively. Black dots representing villains encircled them. They must have been back to back, a clever tactic to make sure no one was unprotected. Sunspot, in dark orange, fought his black dot alone, while Hecate - lime green, and Nova - neon orange, fought theirs next to each other. Sprint and Helion, the neon red and dark blue dots, struggled with two black dots stationed in Marcus Garvey park.   
Sarah zoomed out, listening carefully to the instructions her clone gave, and intermittently counseling her own heroes. She saw a neon purple dot, Medda, struggling with a black dot, and next to it was a white dot - herself. As she continued to look, she remembered something, and almost couldn't keep a smile off her face. Sarah swiped the screen over to an apartment complex not far from the one where she currently sat. 

Sarah needed to stay focused, now more than ever. She pulled up a phone number on the screen and typed furiously, hoping Evil-Sarah wouldn’t notice anything. She hit send. And now, all she could do was try to keep going. 

“Keep going, Crutch,” evil-Sarah said loudly. “It looks like you’ve almost got him down.”

Sarah shot up straight and clicked on Crutchie’s dot. “Cap,” she said into her mic as his information popped up on the screen, and heard a whimper. “Keep going. It looks like-” she clicked on the tab that read ‘vitals’ “-it looks like you’re in decent health right now. You’ve still got a good amount of fight in you, right?”

He whined again. 

“Shit. Your arm looks bad. Um- Rogue, Doc?”

“Yeah, Sarah?” Jack answered. 

“Do what you can to help Cap out, alright? I know you’re all in a tricky situation but-”

“We get you, Sarah,” David cut in. “We’ll see what we can do.”

Sarah saw the black dot opposite her brother fade to gray, and watched it hopefully. Then Crutchie’s did the same, and she gasped, leaned forward, hunched her shoulders-

“Fuck!” David’s voice yelled in her ear, and she watched as his dot lost color, just as his clone’s got darker. She tapped his dot, and checked his injuries. He’d been hit right in the chest. Luckily, it didn’t seem like his clone had used anything dense, since Davey’s breathing was still regular. 

“Keep trying, you guys,” Sarah said, resuming her task from earlier. “It’s all you can do. I’m trying to get help with this somehow. If you’ve got any bright ideas, lemme know.”

She zoomed back out, taking a deep breath. Keep going was all they could do, and she had to trust that no matter what, they would all be okay. She turned her head to try and get a look at Medda. The two of them seemed to be matched up perfectly, blocking each shot with the kind of precision that only Medda could accomplish. 

Her computer made a noise, and she turned back to it, and smiled. 

“Omw” read the message. 

She heard a buzzing in her ear, and switched her conversation. 

“Sarah,” Spot breathed. “Race is at home. He can - help, maybe.”

“Right. Good idea,” Sarah nodded, and sent another message, this time to Race. 

Dots fading in and out became more frequent. Heroes were getting hurt left and right. She was pretty sure that Jack had been shot, Hecate had fallen and was practically pinned, Helion’s heart rate was so fast it looked like he’d explode.   
She got a message back from Race, asking where to go, and she gave him the information he’d need to know. She zoomed out, tracked his dot on the screen, and watched as he got gradually closer to Spot, Joey, and Rafaela. 

Sarah knew that letting Race get involved in a fight was a leap of faith for Spot. Spot's priority, the reason he became a hero, was to protect those he loved. Race was number one on Spot's list, and he hated the idea of Race getting hurt. The situation truly was dire if Spot suggested getting Race’s help. 

Evil-Sarah kept talking, advising the clones in what the best way to take down the heroes would be. Behind Sarah, Medda's breathing sounded heavier and heavier, so Evil-Sarah's methods must have worked.

Her call for backup before Race had been answered, but she wasn't sure it had been put into place until she zoomed out on the screen. An off-white dot popped up on the screen, and Sarah smiled. If Spot calling for Race was his last resort, then this was hers as well. One of the people she loved the most the world was about to take a significant risk, and she couldn't say she was proud of her decision to call him in, but she knew it had to be done. 

That didn't stop her from flinching and feeling like she needed to apologize when Davey yelled into her ear. 

"You sent Les here? Sarah, what the FUCK?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last line sounds like a meme please at least pretend to take it seriously


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have I mentioned that this is my 69th newsies fic? there's something fitting about that, but I don't know what

“Had to be done, Doc,” she replied, and smiled despite the fear when he sighed. He knew how important this was: any asset would be useful, and Les was certainly an asset. Even though he had never had any formal superhero training, he was as tough as both his older siblings, if not tougher than them. Sarah’s evidence for this was in the way he stood up to the bullies in school. Maybe she was biased, but he had all the makings of a hero. He just hadn’t been called into the agency quite yet. 

“Sarah, I don’t like this,” Katherine added. “I know you think it’s good, but-”

“Had to be done, Minerva,” Sarah repeated herself. Les could do this. Even if he couldn’t, he had to try. 

Confirming her hopes, Les was quick to get to work, and she watched as Crutchie’s clone’s dot grew dimmer and dimmer, until eventually it was gone. She pulled herself away from that section of the screen to look somewhere else.   
Race seemed similarly proactive, jumping right to helping Spot take out his clone. She heard her own clone barking instructions at him: “no, Spot, don’t pay attention to him. He’s just trying to distract you stay fucking focused!”  
It didn’t work. Evil-Sunspot got turned around by Race’s presence, and with a few well-landed blows, Spot took him out. 

She punched the air as another dot disappeared. With Crutchie’s clone gone, he could help Jack. From what she could hear, it sounded like Crutchie employed a similar strategy to Race. Distract the clone, let their boyfriend shoot at the villain, hope no one good got hurt in the meantime. It was clever. Especially since Crutchie was injured; this way, he didn't have to fight and strain himself, but he found a way to be useful. Crutchie had a certain talent for resourcefulness and quick thinking. He'd often impressed Sarah with it, acting before she could come up with a new plan of action. 

With Jack's villain down, that let them have three on one with evil-Doctor Chem. Sarah zoomed out. This was looking like the boys had it under control, and she could go back to watching Sprint and Helion, who hadn’t had any backup thus far, unlike the other two groups. 

“Guys, the other teams have gotten help. They’re overtaking the clones. Keep trying,” she encouraged. “They’ll be there to help you soon.”

“How soon, Sarah?” Albert asked, his voice hurried. “We’re getting tired.”

“Soon soon, okay?” She sighed, and switched her conversation. “Rogue? Your villain’s down, so I need you to go help Sprint and Helion. Get there quick, alright? It’s important.”

Jack had the audacity to laugh in her ear. “Yeah, I figured they didn’t need me there so we could have a coffee. I’m on my way.”

At least if he was laughing, he thought they were going to be alright. And Jack knew his stuff: if he thought this would end okay, it let Sarah breathe a sigh of relief. 

“Sarah,” Medda said from behind her. "Help."

Medda's head hung towards her chest, her face desperate for some relent from her enemy. Although it was obvious that Medda's clone felt exactly as exhausted as Medda did, it was equally visible that if Medda wasn't giving up, neither was evil-Medda. 

Sarah stood up, and without a second thought, grabbed her chair and lifted it over her head, throwing it at the clone of her mentor.   
It hit her square in the chest, sending her crumbling to the ground. 

Sarah celebrated for a moment before she realized that she should have thought it through more. If Medda needed help and Sarah intervened, then evil-Medda would need help, and evil-Sarah would intervene.   
Another chair flew into the fight, and just as Sarah realized where it would be going, she reached for it. She prevented it from hitting Medda, giving her a moment to attack her clone while she was down. 

But in Sarah's attempt to rescue Medda, the metal from the arm of the chair had caught her cheek, cutting it open. Blood dripped down her cheek.   
Sarah fell to the ground in spite of herself, cursing as she did. She heard her clone laugh, and looked up to see her giving instructions to her clones, hunched over the desk without a chair. Now Sarah had allowed Medda to get ahead and herself to get behind. That wouldn't be allowable, but if she could catch up, maybe there was still a chance. And she trusted her heroes to go without her for a while. Just not too long. 

“Rogue, Sprint, Helion,” she said into the microphone, gritting her teeth and pushing a rag over the gash in her skin, “how are things going over there?”

“Good!” Elmer’s voice replied. “Jack helped us take out my double and - ugh - we’re fighting Albert’s double now.”

Sure enough, the one black dot next to Albert, Elmer, and Jack grew steadily dimmer and dimmer until it faded to nothing. She zoomed out as they fought, looking for the other fights. Minerva, Doctor Chem, and Captain Cannon, with Les in tow, were already on their way back to the agency, having taken care of their issue. Nova, Sunspot, Hecate, and Race were fighting their last black dot. 

“Good job, boys,” she told Elmer. “Come back to base when you’re done.”

“Copy that,” Jack said, and she could hear his smile as the dot faded away. 

Crutchie and Katherine got to the agency first, Crutchie’s arm slung over Katherine’s shoulders. He must have been really hurt to let himself be carried like that.   
When she saw what was happening with Medda and her clone, both still struggling against each other, she yelled for David, dropped her friend, and charged forward, hitting the evil-Reyna’s face and sending her down, out cold. 

Evil-Sarah stood up, going to hit Katherine with anything she could find on her way over there. A mug in her hands, in complete frustration at having just lost all her coworkers, she raised her hands over her head and began to bring them down onto Katherine.   
Before Katherine was hit and before Sarah could react, the leather jacket Evil-Sarah wore pulled up, seemingly of its own accord. It lifted her off almost three feet off the ground, and she hovered there for a moment. Sarah turned her head to see Davey in the doorway. 

“I’m sick of this, alright?” he asked her, and she nodded, terrified and utterly defeated. “Drop the fucking mug and go back where you came from. I would have hurt you on sight if you didn’t look like my sister, but now that I’m sure who’s who, I won’t hesitate if I see you again.”

Satisfied, he dropped her, and she crumpled to her knees. 

“Get out of here,” Les said, echoing his big brother, and Sarah smiled in spite of herself. Les wouldn’t be something special in the future: he already was something special. 

“Take knockoff Reyna with you,” Crutchie said from where he still sat on the floor. 

Sarah’s clone stood up shakily and did as she was told. Cleanup from this one would be a bitch; Jack, Crutchie, and Davey’s apartment were ruined, much of the city had been damaged, Crutchie was hurt. But at least the villains were dealing with themselves. 

Evil-Sarah stopped in the doorway. “You may not see us again, but now that you’ve hurt us, you’ll be seeing someone worse.”

With that, it was like she disappeared. Not knowing what else to do, Sarah kissed Les on the forehead and silently began to clean up. She let Jack and Davey look at Crutchie, figuring out what he had hurt and how bad it was. Katherine hummed under her breath as she helped Sarah, and the other heroes laid on the couches or floors when they returned, too tired to do anything else.   
Sarah, Katherine, Les, Davey, Crutchie, Jack, and Medda didn’t bother to worry the other heroes with Evil-Sarah’s threat. They needed rest, not stress. It was a problem for later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooohhhh I was going to have it be more of a cliffhanger but I decided to let yall of easy. next chapter though is a tough one


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! Today, one year ago, I published the first chapter of Sunspot. Today, I finish the series on a victorious note.

They'd only really begun to settle back down after the cleaning was done when a rush of air swept through the room.It knocked Sarah, Les, and Race onto their asses, but the people with superhuman modifications were able to keep their balance. Everything they'd just put back on the tables crashed to the ground, and the few heroes who had been lying down jumped up in anticipation.

"You did it. I wasn't sure that all of you would be able to," a strange voice boomed. 

Sarah thought it came from the direction of the front door, so she turned that way. But looking at the people around her, it seemed everyone had heard the voice coming from a different direction. Jack and Albert had looked towards Jack, Davey, and Crutchie's bedroom. Les, Medda, and Spot looked up. Race, Joey, Crutchie, and Katherine looked towards the kitchen. Davey and Elmer looked towards the windows that overlooked the city. 

"Hah. Not sure you can handle this one, though. I think I myself might have you beat, even if the clones couldn't."

Katherine looked at Sarah, her eyes widening. "Isn't that - do you recognize that voice?"

Before Sarah could consider Kath's question, the voice spoke again, so loud she thought it was inside her own head. 

"I feel sure you are confused. I promise that I will explain in time. For now, however, I suggest you remember that out of confusion comes every breakthrough."

Les covered his ears. Race was on the ground. Sarah stood straighter, even though this hurt more than she could say. It banged inside her head like a concrete basketball. Around her, every hero stood at full attention, ready to fire. Hecate's fingertips sparked purple. Rogue's hand flew to his holster, and he looked at Sunspot, who nodded at him, despite the fire dancing on his palms and Nova's. Minerva and Helion stood planted firmly on the ground, while Sprint had ducked to a runner's start position and Captain Cannon hovered above the ground. 

"I cannot tell you how much joy it brings me to see you nearly defeated," the voice said, this time accompanied by a screeching sound. "For the pain you have brought on me, this pain is your due punishment."

And fuck if Sarah knew what that meant. They were heroes; they helped people. Unless this was a villain they'd defeated who had come back stronger in revenge. But Sarah couldn't think of who it could be. No one they'd fought had ever been able to do anything like this. 

"Although I do wish one of you did not have to -" the voice trailed off, coughed, and resumed. "Well. As much as I do appreciate watching this struggle, I would much prefer to have this nasty business over with. Revenge can so become an obsession, but I would rather live a more regular life again. So I suppose I must cut to the chase."

Sarah expected the entrance of the voice to be over the top and dramatic, something as grandiose as his strange, posh accent. Instead, the front door pushed open, and a man stepped through. 

"Oh god," she heard Katherine say. 

“Kathy,” the voice said, but it no longer rang in Sarah’s ears. Instead, it came simply from the gray-haired man in the doorway. 

Katherine's posture changed, so that she stood straighter, like she needed extra composure. “Dad. Of all the people I expected to see right now, you were low on the list.”

The man - Mr. Pulitzer - hummed lowly as he began to walk around the trashed apartment. “That is not quite true,” he said, tracing his fingers over the seams of the couch. “You have thought of me as a villain for a while now, have you not? Supervillain, maybe not. But an antagonist nonetheless.”

It seemed Katherine had nothing to say to that. She hung her head. 

“You knew when your mother died, and he-” Pulitzer pointed at Spot “-did nothing to save her, that I was angry.”

“Yeah,” she said, jerking her head up to look at him, “but I didn’t expect anything like this.” Her hands flew around her, gesturing to the situation at large. “What even is this, some grand revenge scheme?”

“Yes. I don’t suspect you will want to back out of the incorrect choice you have made and come join your father, your only living family. But I promise that if you do, you will not be hurt like the others will be.”

Katherine shook her head and smiled, and Sarah was struck by how similar the two of them really looked when they were like this: calm, collected, borderline sociopathic. “You know that as long as these people are alive, you’re not my only living family.”

“A shame,” her father said, and things began to lift off the floor as he held his hands out, palms to the ceiling. “I might be by the end of the day.”

Hecate was first to strike, sending a flash of purple into Pulitzer’s chest. It bounced off of him like she’d flown a paper airplane at him.   
Before Sarah could register it, Hecate was in the air, her body curving inward against the pressure of being thrown towards the window. Nova screamed, jumping at her girlfriend but missing, and watching helplessly from the floor as Rafaela crashed through the glass and dropped. 

“She will be alright,” Pulitzer said, opening and closing his fists. “As long as she stops pretending she can make the world a better place, that is. Heroes - none of you - can save the world. To even try is foolish.”

“To even try is to hope,” Doctor Chem stepped forward, his voice strong. Sarah smiled at him; his bravery couldn’t be stopped by anything today. 

Pulitzer flicked a finger at him and Davey crumbled to the ground, curled in on himself in pain. “To hope is to lie. You all must stop lying to the people of New York,” Pulitzer replied, watching Davey struggle. 

As Rogue and Captain Cannon rushed to Doctor Chem's side, Sunspot stayed where he was, positioned firmly in front of Race. "You want us to stop doing our jobs."

"If you call this a job," Pulitzer replied, squeezing his fist again. Sarah's head pounded dully, but she stayed standing despite the pressure. "Then yes, I do."

"You want us to stop doin’ our jobs because we had one mistake," Sunspot said, and Sarah saw him twitch. Pulitzer must have been hurting him too. 

"I want you to stop because you call my wife's death a mistake, like it is inconsequential to you."

The pain must have been too much for Spot, both the words and the way that Pulitzer was manipulating him. His knees gave out under him. Race followed him down, screaming in pain.

"Well we won't stop, you know that," Sprint told Pulitzer, and Sarah wanted to yell at him not to reply, because Pulitzer would only hurt anyone who talked. "You'd have to go through us all before we'd do that"

"Exactly what I have come to do," Pulitzer smiled, and both Albert and Elmer fell to the ground. 

Sarah made eye contact with her little brother and nodded toward the doorway. He shook his head, trying to stare her down. Sarah glared at him, and he gave up, sneaking out the door while Pulitzer was focused on talking to - and hurting Captain Cannon and Nova. The two of them fell down, and Sarah looked at Jack and Katherine, both of them stunned at how Katherine’s father could have hurt these people they cared about. 

Only her, Jack, Katherine, Medda, and Pulitzer were still up. 

“We already handled all your clones, Joseph,” Reyna stepped up, her back straight and her arm twitching like Pulitzer was hurting it. “I think we can handle anything.”

Pulitzer held his arms out at the people on the floor, their muscles spasming and making them scream. “Oh really? On what basis is that statement? I think your heroes have made it very obvious that they cannot take whatever I put their way. The clones were only a warmup. Really, I want-”

Medda pulled her weapon out of its holster and fired at him, sending a red light at him. On anyone else, that would have shot directly through where it hit and, at the very least, rendered them useless for a good long while. On Pulitzer, it knocked the air out of him and pushed him backwards, like a good punch. 

“I suppose they call you the queen for a good reason,” he wheezed. “But like I said. Not enough.”

Jack breathed heavily; whatever Pulitzer was doing to him must have lessened with the blow, but increased tenfold as Pulitzer got angrier. Elmer and Race stopped moving completely as Jack fell. 

Pulitzer laughed. “And then there were four.”

Medda, distracted by seeing Jack in pain, seized suddenly. She dropped as well. 

“Katherine,” Pulitzer said, completely ignoring Medda, “my offer still stands, if you would like it.”

“No.”

He hummed. “Join your family then. See if I care.”

Katherine, previously unaffected, let out a yelp and crumbled. Sarah bit her tongue to keep from screaming. 

Pulitzer turned to Sarah. “And you. Why haven’t you fallen yet?”

“What do you mean?”

“By all means, you should have been down first,” Pulitzer shook his head. “You have no powers, very little training. You are essentially the secretary for the heroes. Besides that one’s-” he pointed at Spot “-boyfriend, you should have been on the floor screaming before anyone else. Even when I turned up the intensity of my powers, you hardly flinched. Are you hurting at all?”

“Do you need me to save your ego?” Sarah said, wishing she had held her tongue as soon as she opened her mouth. “No. I’m not in much pain. A headache, maybe.”

“Well why not?”

“My best guess,” Sarah held her head high, unreasonably proud that Pulitzer’s powers hadn’t influenced her, “is that I deal with so much stress every day that I don’t feel fazed. These guys only deal with pain in fighting and loss of each other every day. I deal with that, and then I deal with bucking up and figuring out a strategy.”

“That makes no sense.” Pulitzer shook his head. “Your explanation is impossible.”

“Maybe so. Let’s admit that I don’t know, you don’t know, and you don’t want to admit you’ve been outlasted by a normal person, and we’ll call it even.”

He stood up straighter to face her. She was vaguely aware of two more bodies going still on the floor. “You have not outlasted me. You cannot outlast me.”

“Right. Okay.”

“How are you so confident, even with your friends going down all around you?”

Sarah laughed, a signal of confidence from a reserve she didn’t know she had. “I told you. I deal with this almost daily. And then I strategize.”

Les ran in then, screaming like it was the end of the world. Before Pulitzer could understand what was happening, Les had jumped on his back and was grabbing at his hair, tearing at everything he could find. Davey had called Les an agent of chaos once upon a time. Never had it fit better.   
Sarah made a beeline not for her girlfriend or her brother, but for Jack. She grabbed the gun out of his holster and aimed at Pulitzer. 

“Les, get off!” she screamed. After she was sure he had, she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. Three shots fired from the gun before she opened her eyes again. One had torn through the wall. A second had gone into Pulitzer’s stomach. The third tore through his head, leaving him on the ground. She dropped the gun and looked at Les, who laid flat on his back a few feet away from Pulitzer. 

“Are you okay?” she asked him. 

“Yeah,” he answered, and rushed towards Davey. “David. David,” he whispered. 

Sarah did the same to Katherine, kissing her forehead when she sat up.   
She smiled to see Davey waking Jack, and Les waking Joey. Joey left as soon as she could, rushing downstairs to find her girlfriend. 

When all of the heroes had woken and were sat on the couch, Medda laughed. “Well done, everyone. Sarah especially.”

She gave a fake bow, making a few people laugh. Good. They needed a laugh. 

“I guess we really need to rebuild now, huh?” Rafaela asked. 

“Seriously,” Jack answered. 

Elmer grabbed his head and winced. “Not now now, though, right?”

“Right.” Davey laid down. “Not today. Today, we should rest and be happy we did this. That Sarah and Les did this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! I hope you've enjoyed it! Thank you so so so much for reading, commenting, and helping this series grow. 
> 
> (I'm so bad at writing and dealing with endings)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed!! Let me know what you thought, what you think is going to happen next, and come talk to me on tumblr @javidblue or @allbesolucky


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